Dr. Dean Ornish

Dr. Dean Ornish is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and UCSD. He received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine, was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School, and his residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He earned a BA in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address.

For over 36 years, Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease without drugs or surgery. His "Program for Reversing Heart Disease" became the first non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical therapy for heart disease to qualify for insurance reimbursement. Recently, Medicare agreed to provide coverage for this program, the first time that Medicare has covered a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes. He has also been instrumental in developing a new coverage category called intensive cardiac rehabilitation with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

His research studies have not only focused on the effects of lifestyle changes, including diet, exercise, stress management, and social support, on heart disease but also on other chronic conditions. Ornish is widely known for his plant-based diet, named the "Ornish diet," which emphasizes the consumption of fruits, legumes, vegetables, and whole grains. This diet has been authorized as a cardiac rehabilitation program by Medicare and has been followed by notable figures, including former President Bill Clinton.

Ornish is the author of several books, all of which are national bestsellers, including "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease," "Eat More, Weigh Less," "Love & Survival," "The Spectrum," and his most recent book, "Undo It!" His work has been extensively covered in various media outlets, such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and more. He was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Obama to key administration roles related to health and wellness, including the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.

Ornish has been recognized as a “TIME 100 Innovator,” by LIFE as “one of the fifty most influential members of his generation,” and by Forbes as “one of the seven most powerful teachers in the world.” He has received several awards, including the 1994 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin; the University of California, Berkeley, “National Public Health Hero” award, the Jan J. Kellermann Memorial Award for distinguished contribution in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention from the International Academy of Cardiology, a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association, and more. His contributions to health and wellness have earned him recognition as "one of the 125 most extraordinary University of Texas alumni in the past 125 years" and "one of the seven most powerful teachers in the world" by Forbes magazine.